Windows 8 Consumer Preview Is Here

Microsoft (MSFT) just released their new Windows 8 Consumer Preview at the Mobile World Congress. The Developer Preview edition of Windows 8 was released around 6 months ago. Microsoft states that they made “100,000 changes” since the Developer Preview version.

This new Windows is almost like Windows 7 with a twist. One of the major updates is that the Start button we all know is gone. Windows 8 is the first OS that blends software, hardware, apps, and other services.

This software was mostly created for “touch” devices but will work on regular desktop and laptops as well. This pre-release “beta” version of the operating system can be downloaded for free here: preview.windows.com . It is a new way to work and connect with your computer, it has a new vision for the desktop, and this title-based “Metro” interface is the one that MS created for the Windows Phone. Metro change the way users used to think about smartphones.

Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft said: “With Windows 8, we reimagined the different ways people interact with their PC and how to make everything feel like a natural extension of the device, whether using a Windows 8 tablet, laptop or all-in-one,” “The Windows 8 Consumer Preview brings a no-compromises approach to using your PC.”

Besides the new interface Windows 8 has new features such as Cloud computing with the integration of Windows SkyDrive online storage locker, Windows Store and Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 5.

The software can be used in different ways, like a tablet or like a regular computer desktop; both give functionalities that make it easy to use.

Another great attributes of Windows 8 are picture password that is a security characteristic that lets the user to unlock the PC by tracing preset patterns on an image, and can choose it instead of an alphanumeric password, to “roaming,” which automatically syncs settings, apps and other data between different Windows 8 computers.